Optimization Of Automobile Drive Axle Housing

As the mainly carrying and passing components of the vehicle, the automobile drive axle housing supports the weight of vehicle, and transfer the weight to the wheel. Through the drive axle housing , the tractive force , braking force and lateral force act on the wheel transfer to the suspension system , frame or carriage. So the performance of automobile drive axle housing structure affects whether the automobile design is successful or not. With the rapid development of automobile industry the performance request becomes stricter and stricter, which makes conventional calculation methods of design can't meet the needs of modern automobile design. The appearance of computers and the development of finite element method bring on a new revolution about the calculation and analysis of automobile drive axle housing structure. Using finite element method to analyze automobile drive axle housing structure and taking it optimization into account make sense in improving automobile performance, reducing the cost of design and manufacture of cars and increasing capability of market competition.ANSYS software takes on unexampled advantages in static analysis, dynamic analysis and optimization design etc by right of its powerful analysis function and high reliability. Applying ANSYS to finite element analysis and optimization can advance our work efficiency.Through studying ANSYS software this thesis built the FEA model of a automobile drive axle housing with shell elements. Based on the model the author studied the static and dynamic performance of the automobile drive axle housing structure. At last, the author built a simple optimization model of the automobile drive axle housing. With the objective that the volume of the drive axle housing is minimal the author optimized the carling section dimensions.